Eight Parts of Speech

The eight parts of speech form the foundation for the structure of sentences and rules of
grammar. That is why you began studying them as soon as you started school. Each part
of speech has unique characteristics, and, once you learn them, you can use them to
strengthen your understanding of the more difficult grammar concepts.

1. A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea.

Person: Maria
Place: New York
Thing: Pencil
Idea: Freedom

2. A pronoun replaces the name of a person, place, thing, or idea in a sentence

I, you, he, she, it, we, they Subject Pronouns
Me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them Object Pronouns
My, Your, his, her, its, our, your, their Possessive Adjectives
Mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs Possessive Pronouns
Myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves Reflexive
pronouns

3. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.

Size: Tiny, big
Appearance: Beautiful
Color: Black

4. A verb expresses action or links the subject to the rest of the sentence. (Note: the
subject in a sentence is the noun or pronoun performing the action of the verb or being
linked to the descriptors in the predicate.)

Mary walked home every day after piano practice. (Mary is performing the action of
walking.)

I baked a pie and roasted the potatoes for dinner. (I am performing two actions here.
Connecting two actions to the subject creates a compound verb.)

She is nice. (The pronoun subject she is being linked to the adjective nice. There is no
action being performed in this sentence. However, a sentence must always contain a
verb, so if you can not see direct action, you probably have a linking verb.)

5. An adverb describes a verb, adjective, or another adverb by telling how, why, when,
or in what way or to what extent something exists or is done.
I carefully walked down the hallway so I could find the spider. (This word describes
how I walked. The adverb describes a verb.)

The very noisy boy ran quite loudly through the new store. (Very describes how noisy
the boy is. Since noisy describes the boy—a noun— it is an adjective, so the adverb very
describes an adjective. Loudly describes how the boy ran, so it is an adverb describing a
verb. Quite describes how loudly the boy ran. You already know loudly is an adverb, so
quite is an adverb describing another adverb.)

6. A conjunction joins words, phrases, or sentences together.

I would love to go shopping, but I have no money. (A word joining two complete
sentences)

For my birthday, I would love a new coat and a new pair of leather gloves. (A word
joining two phrases)

I would like to go on vacation; however, I have no vacation days left at work. (A

word joining two complete thoughts separated with a semicolon.)

7. A preposition shows the relationship (such as direction, time, or placement) between a

noun or pronoun and another word in a sentence

List of common prepositions: about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around,
at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, despite, down, during,
except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, out, outside, over, past,
since, through, throughout, till, to, toward, underneath, until, up, upon, with, within,
without.

The child is playing in the yard. (The preposition in is connected to the noun yard with
the article the in between.)

My mother, who was at the store in Atlanta, found a new scarf. (Two prepositional
phrases occur side by side: at the store and in Atlanta.)

The shoebox is near the big rock, hidden under the woodpile. (Two prepositional
phrases separated by the word hidden)

8. An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses emotion and is usually at the

beginning of the sentence.

Wow! I just won twenty dollars in the raffle!

No way! I can’t believe you won the first-place trophy.
Hey, it’s getting late.